Chapter 522: Controlled
Translator: Pika
Zu An felt his scalp tingling. Horror movies involving children or infants were always the worst ones, and now, there were suddenly so many of them crawling towards him. Anyone who was a little less brave would probably have fainted on the spot!
Pei Mianman’s voice was quivering uncontrollably. “Ah Zu, did your dream tell you how to deal with them?”
Zu An was on the verge of tears as well. “No…”
He only knew about this legend, but he didn’t know anything else about it.
The Guman Tong were coming closer and closer. Pei Mianman couldn’t hold herself back anymore and unleashed her black flames on them. No matter what, she still saw them as undead creatures, so her flames should be effective against them.
However, her eyes went wide as she witnessed what followed. The Guman Tong were surrounded by black flames, but they showed no expressions of pain—instead, they laughed. As they crawled forward, they used their hands to caress the flames, as though encountering an old friend.
Pei Mianman immediately began to question her life. Her black flames were much more formidable than ordinary flames. It could even melt rocks and steel, let alone the flesh of a human body! However, it seemed to do nothing against these ‘infants’.
Zu An said with a gloomy voice, “These Guman Tong were created through secret rites involving raging fire. It’s to be expected that they aren’t afraid of fire.”
By now, several Guman Tong had reached them. Zu An hacked at one of them with his Tai’e Sword.
The bodies of the Guman Tong seemed as hard as metal. The sharp Tai’e Sword failed to leave even a single mark on them.
The two of them slowly retreated, keeping their guards up, and a moment later, Zu An let out a breath. “Even though these Guman Tong are extremely strange, they don’t seem to possess any strong offensive capability. We’ll be fine as long as we’re careful.”
Neither Zu An’s sword nor Pei Mianman’s flames did little to damage the advancing Guman Tong, but they were still infants, after all, so they did not know how to walk properly, but could only crawl. They did not move quickly, and their attacks were rudimentary at best.
As soon as Zu An had spoken, however, the sound of bones grinding together came from the sacrificial pits around them.
Cold sweat began dripping down the backs of the two humans. This sound was exceedingly familiar—it was precisely the sound the skeletal warrior from the gate had made when it walked.
They looked towards the source of the sound and saw many skeletons crawling out from those sacrificial pits. They held rusted spears that they picked up from who knew where. As soon as they were clear of the pits, they charged at the two of them.
“What the hell is this?!” The range of those spears was way too far. The dozen or so skeletons seemed to have some form of telepathy. They moved together like a real army formation and coordinated their attacks, forcing the two of them to dodge in a rather unflattering manner.
“These guys don’t even have heads. How are they even seeing us?!” Zu An was utterly despondent. Even though the skeletal warrior earlier on didn’t have actual eyes, it still had a head. The two red lights that burned within its sockets could function as eyes, so he could still understand its existence to some extent.
However, despite these skeletal warriors having absolutely nothing above their necks, their movements didn’t seem the least bit affected!
“Look at their backs!” Pei Mianman had sharp eyes, and she quickly noticed what was going on.
Zu An looked more carefully. The skeletons each had a Guman Tong hanging off their backs. Their bodies were already under the Guman Tong’s control, so they obviously didn’t need eyes anymore.
Even though the Guman Tong themselves did not possess any significant offensive prowess, they amplified it greatly by attaching themselves to these skeletons.
These skeletons were no match for Zu An and Pei Mianman one on one, but with more than ten of them working together, they created a semblance of a military formation, which multiplied their overall strength.
With a loud crash, Zu An sent his Tai’e Sword crashing against the long spears. He felt as if his fingers were splitting apart, and he almost lost his grip on his longsword.
As such, he immediately changed his strategy. He used his miraculous movement technique to weave around the skeletons, sneaking in hidden strikes with the Tai’e Sword from time to time.
The bodies of these skeletons weren’t as tough as those of the Guman Tong, nor were they as hardy as that of the skeletal warrior they had faced aboveground. Soon enough, the sword strikes began to leave long scars on their bones.
Zu An glanced over at Pei Mianman. Black flames swirled around her, burning away at those skeletons until their white bones trembled wildly. Clearly, their bones were unable to resist the black flames. If it wasn’t for the protection that the Guman Tong offered, they would have already been reduced to ash.
Zu An heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that she was unharmed, and turned his attention back to attacking those skeletons. Each time he saw an opening, he chose to strike at their legs. After striking the same point several times, the skeleton’s leg bones would finally lose their integrity, causing the skeleton to lose its balance and fall to the ground.
Zu An used this chance to hack them to pieces, preventing the Guman Tong from controlling them any further.
Despite this, the fact that he had no idea how to deal with these Guman Tong frustrated him greatly. If he couldn’t get rid of them, then they would just control other skeletal warriors. He would be worn out soon even if he didn’t die.
A sudden thought struck Zu An, and he took out some rope to tie up the Guman Tong that had fallen off the skeleton. He stored many sundry items within the Brilliant Glass Bead, thanks to its incredibly large space, and he had no lack of lime powder for ambushes, ropes, hidden weapons, and other useful items.
It would have been great if he possessed the Embroidered Envoy’s Soul-sealing Chains, which might have allowed him to actually restrain the Guman Tong. Even though these ropes were tough enough, they weren’t magical weapons, and it was doubtful if they would be able to hold the Guman Tong for very long.
However, as matters stood, he didn’t have any other means. He could only trap them for as long as he could.
He managed to take down several more skeletal warriors, and caught a total of seven Guman Tong.
He felt a sense of accomplishment well up within him, and called out to Pei Mianman, “Big Manman, knock those Guman Tong off the skeletons. I’ll capture them!”
Despite shouting several times, however, he received no reply. Perturbed, he quickly turned around. He saw that Pei Mianman was fine, and the skeletal warriors that had surrounded her were all on the ground, lifeless. They had clearly been dealt with.
Zu An hurried over to her. “Big Manman, how did you do it? What happened to the Guman Tong on their backs?” he asked.
He was still expecting an answer when, suddenly, a torrent of black flame shot out at him.
Zu An had no idea she would suddenly attack him! He quickly dodged to the side, but wasn’t able to completely evade the stream of flame, and some of it caught a part of his clothes.
He had witnessed firsthand how strong these black flames were. Once they made contact, not even bits of bone would be left behind.
He quickly tore off that part of his clothes and patted down his body. He knew that, if any of those black flames came into contact with his flesh, it would be difficult—or even impossible—to put out.
Surprisingly, though, the black flames went out on their own in a moment, and did not spread to the rest of him.
He finally remembered the pendant she had given him, which made him immune to the black flames.
He had almost forgotten about it!
Zu An heaved a sigh of relief, and secretly rejoiced that he hadn’t returned the pendant yet.
He turned to Pei Mianman. “Manman, what’s gotten into you?”
Her eyes stared back at him, dark and overcast. She didn’t reply, but continued to attack him.
“Big Manman?” Zu An continued to yell, almost suffering severe injuries from several close shaves. Pei Mianman had more than just her black flames at her disposal, after all.
Mi Li’s cold voice spoke into his mind. “The Guman Tong has already taken control of her mind. If you continue to hold back, there’s a high chance you’ll be killed.”
“Big sis empress!” Zu An was both shocked and overjoyed. For some reason, he always felt a sense of comfort whenever he heard her voice.
At the same time, he quickly studied Pei Mianman, and saw that there was a Guman Tong hanging around her neck. Its lips cracked open a grin when it saw him looking at it.
Zu An felt a chill run through his body. He finally understood where the Guman Tong had gone after the skeletal warriors around her had collapsed.
Zu An felt his mind tremble with shock. “This thing can control people?”
Mi Li replied, “Of course. Didn’t you say earlier on that the general from Thailand was unstoppable when he brought his Guman Tong to battle? I believe it was probably because it could control the human mind.”
“Then why am I not being controlled?” Zu An recalled that some of the Guman Tong had touched him several times, and fear crept into his mind.
Mi Li snorted. “Your soul is bound to mine. There’s no way you could possibly be controlled by a mere Guman Tong.”
“Then how do I free someone who is controlled?” asked Zu An hurriedly.
Mi Li’s voice was like ice. “There is no way. You have to kill her.”